Earlier this academic year, Virginia Commonwealth University was faced with a huge logistical challenge — an international, world-class bike race would disrupt local traffic patterns and supply lines. But the university saw the event as an opportunity to offer students a week of mini-courses, using the race environment as a giant learning lab and tapping a range of technologies to support student work.

After only about five years since its inception, a free, open education resource called FLEXspace is already demonstrating its potential to improve both the process of creating campus learning spaces and the science of using them.